The literature concerning the psychic arms race between America and
the Soviet Union is an intriguing mixture of fact and fiction. Many of
the claims are bound to exceed boggle thresholds, but some seem more
plausible. ESP Wars allegedly contains the true stories as narrated by
some of the key players.

The book starts with a wide-ranging historical survey with accounts
from ancient times, including stories about shamans, yogis, and saints.
Alongside well-known mediums, there are also fascinating individuals
such as Blavatsky and Rasputin who make an appearance. Messing does not
appear, but Hanussen, "Prophet of the Third Reich," does, in a
section concerning Nazi occultism, a subject which, like the named
individuals, is itself surrounded by myths. When Hitler came to power he
began to persecute those involved in the occult, and something similar
occurred under Stalin's regime: "Books on occultism were
removed from shelves all across the country, members of esoteric groups
were sent to camps and shot" (pp. 44-45). Officially, in the late
1930s occultism and psi research in the Soviet Union ceased to exist.

The history of psi research in the West and the East is also
outlined. Oddly, neither the declassified reports nor the accounts by
parapsychologists who had been in the Soviet Union are cited or even
mentioned. Project MKULTRA, initiated by the CIA in 1953, is briefly
covered. According to the authors, the CIA's interest in psi was
due to its "... potential both as a means of mental manipulation
and as a method of covertly sending and receiving information" (p.
53).

The well-known story about the telepathy experiment involving the
U.S. submarine Nautilus, which allegedly took place in 1959, is
naturally also covered. The authors appear oblivious to Martin
Ebon's (1983) investigation: in short, this suggests it to have
been a hoax by the author Jacques Bergier, who may have been
deliberately fed disinformation. The story did function as an ignition
spark for the psychic arms race--Soviet parapsychologists successfully
used it to argue that psi research should start anew. With minor
exceptions no psi research has officially been carried out there since
the late 1930s. It could thus be argued that the U.S. had a head start.

The Soviets' attempt to catch up, combined with lack of
reliable information and the sensational book Psychic Discoveries Behind
the Iron Curtain (Ostrander & Schroeder, 1970), created the need for
a threat assessment. The Zeitgeist in the 1970s presumably also
contributed to the U.S. intelligence agencies' increased interest.
Later, in addition to Soviet emigres' claims (Starr & McQuaid,
1985), popular books and articles concerning a psychic arms race emerged
(McRae, 1984; White, 1988)--the impact of all this is not discussed.

The limits of psi are not known, and this worried the U.S.
intelligence agencies. The need for a threat assessment resulted in what
is now known as the Star Gate program, which focused on remote viewing.
The program can in hindsight be said to have been initiated in 1972 by
the CIA, which for a few years supported the research (Kress, 1977/1999;
Richelson, 2001). Some in the CIA were clearly impressed by the initial
research, but they also became aware of the still unsolved problem
concerning how to separate fact from fiction in the remote viewing data.
In addition, there was some unwanted publicity about the intelligence
agencies' interest in psi (Wilhelm, 1976, 1977).

Given some stunning results and the lack of reliable information
about the development in the Soviet Union, a military program was
nevertheless initiated in 1978 at Ft. Meade.

The authors claim that approximately 3,000 intelligence personnel
worldwide were screened with regard to their potential participation in
the program. Declassified documents, however, reveal that 251 personnel
were considered, 117 initially interviewed, and 6 individuals eventually
selected (CIA-RDP9600788R001100020001-8); one of them was Joseph
McMoneagle. Both Edwin May and McMoneagle contribute autobiographical
sections; although interesting, they seem somewhat redundant given the
book's focus. More interesting are the accounts about search tasks
involving remote viewers. One account is unverifiable, but the others
can be scrutinized.

One search task (Project 8916) was initiated in order to locate
Drug Enforcement Agency agent Charles Jordan. The authors mention only
remote viewer Angela Dellafiora Ford's participation, yet 17
sessions focused on finding Jordan and several viewers were
involved--their impressions differed from one another. The authors also
fail to note that Ford's preferred method is referred to as written
remote viewing--like a trance medium, she channeled information from
entities (Smith, 2005). In addition, it is far from clear if her
impressions really led to the capture of Jordan as the authors claim
(Graff, 1998, 2000; Nickell, 2004).

Another case of selective reporting concerns the remote
viewers' involvement in the search for the kidnapped Brigadier
General James Dozier. He was allegedly impressed by some of the remote
viewing data, but it should be noted that it was a Red Brigades member,
not McMoneagle's impressions, that provided the clues that led to
his location (Graff, 2000). Also briefly covered is the remote
viewers' involvement in the Iran hostage crisis--more than 200
sessions focused on this. Andrew Endersby's (2014) examination
reveals that there was a lot of erroneous information in the remote
viewing data.

The authors also claim that McMoneagle was involved in the attempt
to locate a Soviet aircraft which had crashed in Zaire (this claim turns
up elsewhere as well). The plane, however, crashed in March 1979, before
he had completed his remote viewing training. That said, data from two
remote viewers, Rosemary Smith and Gary Langford, made the search team
shift their focus, which caused them to encounter natives who had found
the plane (Graff, 2000; Smith, 2005).

Relatively little is said about the U.S. research on remote
viewing. The reader is reminded of the researchers' inability to
find out why some individuals are good remote viewers and others are
not. In passing, the remote viewing experiment involving the submarine
Taurus is also covered. Of most interest are the comments about the
psychic Ingo Swann, who was tasked with developing a method to train
remote viewers. According to May, he had a brilliant mind and worked 12
to 14 hours each day for years, but it is stressed that he was not a
scientist and that the method he developed was fundamentally flawed. The
main problem was that Swann was not blind to the target and provided
feedback to the remote viewers during training sessions: "Assuming
no psychic ability whatsoever, a person could arrive at the correct site
via clever responses, conscious or unconscious" (pp. 140-141). May
also claims that Swann instilled an anti-science attitude in his
trainees, which contributed to the creation of a chasm between the
researchers and the remote viewers at Ft. Meade.

Naturally the eventual closure of the Star Gate program in 1995 is
also covered. May has expressed his views about this before (May, 1996),
but he provides some additional information about what occurred behind
the scenes. For more than a decade after the closure he and McMoneagle
tried to start a new program--all their efforts were in vain.
Nevertheless, it is still rumored that an active remote viewing program
exists (e.g., Margolis, 2013, pp. 108-110).

So far, this review has barely touched on psi research in the
Soviet Union, despite the fact that the sections concerning this are
presumably of most interest. The claims that these sections contain are
much harder to assess and are bound to exceed boggle thresholds,
although the authors for their part seem to take most of the claims at
face value. Due to the frustrating lack of details it is difficult to
grasp the scope of psi research after the disintegration of the Soviet
Union, but it seems as if in the 1990s, the focus was on applied psi
rather than research.

Some of the stranger claims that reached the U.S. concered
psychotronic generators--hardware devices, often with nothing under the
casing that ostensibly utilized psychic energy. In the Soviet Union
dozens were constructed but most of them never worked. That said,
according to Major General Nikolai Sham, the few that did "...
were, and still remain, utterly unique designs that were frequently
ahead of their time and which created the foundation for future
technologies" (p. x). May, however, claims that Sham told him that
although he had funded 40 different institutes specifically to develop
psychotronic weapons they just could not get them to work. When the Cold
War ended development of psychotronic weapons was discontinued.

Psychics were, however, still used, but according to the Russians
their intelligence agencies only sporadically consulted psychics and
primarily in crime investigations or counter-espionage operations. The
authors note: "The KGB held two opposing views of psychics at the
same time: Officially, the KGB prosecuted them. Unofficially, they
secretly used them" (p. 281). Several examples are given, including
some recollections by the psychic Tofik Dadashev (concerning him, see
Gris & Dick, 1978). The Russians also, allegedly, had psychics on
Dickson Island in the Kara Sea who "... studied the American
military satellites by means of remote viewing, even to the details of
their designs" (p. 170).

Major General Boris Ratnikov and Major General Georgii Rogozin
consulted psychics concerning threats to Boris Yeltsin. On some
occasions Ratnikov even changed Yeltsin's schedule based on
information from psychics. They also used psychics to protect important
politicians from psychic influence and mind reading, but no details are
given. Ratnikov relates that a psychic informed him that Yuri Skokov,
Secretary of the State Security Council, was subject to psychic
influence during his and Yeltsin's visit in the U.S. in 1992:
"Naturally, we tried to protect Skokov from this psychic influence
and to block the leak of information through extrasensory methods"
(p. 189). Ratnikov clearly believed such things could occur and has
previously claimed that psychics read former U.S. Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright's subconscious mind in 1999 (Smolchenko, 2007).

Equally mind-boggling is Lt. General Alexei Savin's account
about military unit 10003. Savin comes across as an exceptional man who
after three near-death experiences in childhood became psychic. Friends
in high places ensured that his extensive program, initiated in 1989,
was well-supported. Initially his staff consisted of 10 people, but by
the year 2000, it included more than 50 people. Groups of psychics were
trained (unfortunately no details are given about their training) and
applied their abilities in a variety of ways. My impression is however
that Savin would agree with Major General Nikolai Sham: "But most
importantly, unique techniques of developing extraordinary human
abilities and qualitatively increasing intellectual and spiritual levels
were developed and carefully tested in practice" (p. xi). The
program remained active until 2004.

In conclusion, it should be admitted that the book lacks an index,
is somewhat poorly organized, and references are rarely given.
Parapsychologists know where to search for more detailed information,
but the book is clearly aimed at laymen. They would likely also
appreciate a timeline with key events. Whether the true stories have
really been provided can be disputed, but it is an interesting book.
Most of the information concerning the Star Gate program is already in
the open literature (e.g., May, 2014), but especially May's
recollections provide some new glimpses behind the scenes. The authors
also managed to get the Russians to share some new thought-provoking
information that would fit well in a science fiction novel.